The source for actionable policy ideas to spur innovation.

The World Bank’s IDA lending program should continue to make credit available to low-income countries for developing energy-generating systems that are the most affordable option, even if they are fossil fuel-based. International institutions should not limit global economic development and energy access in the name of climate mitigation, or offer more expensive energy options when cheaper...

Doubling or tripling energy consumption in energy-poor countries means little when the gap in energy consumption per capita between high- and low-income countries is actually more on the magnitude of one hundred instead of one. For example, rather than meeting the IEA’s low estimate of what constitutes modern energy access—100 kWh per capita, per year—the UN should work toward raising low-income...

A significant challenge in many low-income countries is a lack of informed strategic energy planning. Lack of data on regulatory structures, market trends, infrastructure, government investments, and institutional involvement often inhibits or undermines the implementation of projects or policy.168 To correct this, IEA should develop an energy innovation ecosystem mapping initiative for low-...

The Bank should immediately stop funding projects that include provisions for compulsory licensing or domestic content requirements, which would empower clean energy projects to use the most innovative and affordable technologies available. The Bank should shift some of its financing away from green mercantilist countries and toward low-income countries that do not utilize mercantilist policies.

The UN should work to facilitate negotiations through the UNFCCC process on an international climate agreement that doesn’t include compulsory licensing or assume clean energy falls under the Doha Declaration of the TRIPS agreement, as it pertains to addressing climate change.

For the past few years the UN and other development organizations have supported “technology leapfrogging” for small devices like solar lamps and clean cookstoves. These technologies, while largely unnecessary in high-income countries, address important and specific needs in low-energy-access countries, but still don’t provide high-energy access. The UN should expand this leapfrogging approach...

The Clean Technology Fund should be redesigned to represent the premier “clean energy innovation” financial mechanism for low-income and emerging countries to coordinate the testing and demonstration of advanced clean energy technologies.

The World Bank should prioritize innovation in its energy investment portfolio by supporting the demonstration and deployment of emerging, rather than just existing, technologies to drive innovation. The Bank should execute such an institutional change by using IBRD policy loans to support the implementation of clean energy innovation policy strategies in lower-middle income and emerging...

Countries should support smart clean energy deployment by implementing performance-based subsidies or incentives that steadily decrease over time, requiring technologies to compete on technological merit and innovation, not government largesse.

While new trade agreements for clean energy are needed, enforcing existing free trade agreements within the WTO framework is critical to combating rampant green mercantilism. For the United States this means increasing funds for the U.S. Trade Representative to expand capabilities to focus on unfair clean tech trade practices. For other free-trade based countries this means making it a national...

Investing in R&D is risky, but creates a large societal benefit through knowledge spillovers. Furthermore, R&D creates new products and practices that create economic growth. Many of the benefits of R&D are not captured by the firm producing the research. This is why the United States, like most other countries, offer incentives to firms investing in R&D. Unfortunately, the...

Although the gap in participation between voters with and without disabilities
has narrowed, people with disabilities are still less likely to vote than people
without disabilities. In particular, individuals with a cognitive difficulty, a
self-care difficulty, or an independent-living difficulty, vote at significantly
lower rates than individuals with no disability. These individuals may...

State licensing boards establish the conditions under which health care providers may practice within their state. In general, states require practitioners to be licensed in the state in which they practice medicine. Before the advent of telehealth, the state where practitioners worked and the state where patients received treatment were almost always the same. However, since telehealth allows...